John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerTubal Eduardo Sr. cries as he testifies about the loss of family members in a fatal fire during his trial at the Somerset County Courthouse in Somerville. He is accused of stealing donated money intended for his son. SOMERSET COUNTY -- In two months, a Somerset County man allegedly blew through the thousands of dollars a Manville PTA raised for his son after a fatal fire, spending it on escorts, hotel rooms, spa services and other pleasures.

A Somerset County assistant prosecutor today insisted Tubal Eduardo Sr. defied a court order that established parameters for any funds that were raised for 2-year-old Noah.

The state has charged Eduardo with third-degree theft by failure to make required disposition of property received, and the attorneys delivered their closing arguments in the trial before Superior Court Judge Paul Armstrong. Jurors will begin deliberations today, and if convicted, the 32-year-old Somerville man could face five years in prison.

File photoTubal Eduardo Jr., Heather Marchie, Angelina Eduardo and Noah Eduardo in a Christmas 2006 family photo. Only Noah, and his father Tubal Eduardo Sr. (not pictured) survived the fatal house fire in Manville on March 12, 2007.The case focused on what transpired after a blaze ripped through the home Eduardo shared with his longtime girlfriend, Heather Marchie, 28. On March 12, 2007, an overloaded extension cord sparked the fire, killing Marchie and two of their children, Tubal Jr., 5, and Angelina, 4. Eduardo escaped with the youngest child, but said he spent about two weeks in the hospital.

The Weston School PTA, where Tubal Jr. was a kindergartner, raised $38,351.24 and ultimately divided those funds into two checks, $5,000 for Eduardo, and the rest in a check for Noah. But, instead of acting in his son’s best interest, Assistant Prosecutor Robert Pollock said Eduardo selfishly used all of the money for himself and admitted doing so in court and in a statement to police.

The $33,351.24 was Noah’s money, Pollock said. “The defendant never had a right to that money,” he said. Instead of squirreling it away for the child’s education and other future expenses, Eduardo “got two months of just pleasure. Two months of booze, escorts, spa sessions, expensive hotels.”

But public defender Maureen O’Reilly said no one ever gave her client a copy of a court order. The grieving father was embroiled in a custody battle for his surviving child. The parent-teacher association had collected money in an account dubbed the Eduardo Family Fund.

“This fund was set up so that Mr. Eduardo and his son could somehow start all over again,” O’Reilly said. “This was not known as the Noah Eduardo College Fund. It was always the Eduardo Family Fund.”

Testimony in the trial started last week, and featured testimony from the former PTA president who said they received tens of thousands from donors around the country. The child’s aunt, Nicole Marchie, testified that while Eduardo was in the hospital, she took care of Noah and went to court to establish custody and make arrangements for the fund, which she had learned of through media accounts.

The attorneys for both Nicole Marchie and Eduardo testified about negotiations that resulted in an agreement for sharing custody and provisions for any funds, a pact that was later memorialized in a court order on June 12, 2007.

Pollock said the trial hinges on the parameters outlined in that document. Any funds were to be placed in a joint guardian account listing Eduardo and Noah’s maternal grandmother, Debra Jean Walters, as co-holders. No money was to be spent without both adults consenting, and the parties agreed to “act reasonably in the best interest of the minor child,” according to the document Pollock displayed.

O’Reilly said her client never squandered the funds. He used $1,744 to pay off motor vehicle fines, and spent part of the money on a used vehicle he needed for transportation. “He didn’t go out and buy a shiny new convertible off the lot,” she said.